


Mercy (day 2- Betrayed)

by Only_Slightly_Obsessed (A_Stressed_Cupcake)



Series: Rémy's 2020 Multifandom Whumptober Works [2]
Category: The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
Genre: Angst, Basil I'm sorry, Canonical Character Death, Gen, Introspection, M/M, Whumptober 2020, yeah he's getting stabbed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-10
Updated: 2020-10-10
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:41:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26933779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_Stressed_Cupcake/pseuds/Only_Slightly_Obsessed
Summary: What is feeling betrayed?In the end, it is mourning a kinship that never was. It is mourning the death of love.______Whumptober 2020- day 2: Betrayed
Relationships: Dorian Gray & Basil Hallward, Dorian Gray/Basil Hallward
Series: Rémy's 2020 Multifandom Whumptober Works [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1965271
Comments: 4
Kudos: 11
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	Mercy (day 2- Betrayed)

**Author's Note:**

> cw for canonical violence and death

What is feeling betrayed?

In the end, it is mourning a kinship that never was. It is mourning the death of love.

Sometimes, a betrayal is lasting and full of sorrow, such as the betrayal of a cheating lover. Whoever is left behind to pick up the shattered pieces of their trust will suffer days, or weeks, or months of humiliation and pain, living and breathing with the memory of their betrayal pressing down on their shoulders. Sometimes they're even crushed.

But sometimes, it's a different kind of betrayal.

Sometimes, there's no time.

If he had been spared his life, Basil knows he would be grieving the death of love. 

Is it a mercy, then, that he isn't? Is the blade that is piercing the tender skin of his neck a mercy? It doesn't feel like it. 

Basil is not granted that clarity that comes before the end. There's no time for it, because the knife comes again, too fast for him to think, and his whole body jolts and writhes, because it's not mercy, it's pure  _ agony _ .

The real mercy comes much later, when the knife falls and his hand stops twitching with the last remnants of his pain.

It comes when his heart, who has so callously betrayed him in loving the devil himself, finally stops.

It comes with sweet nothing.

**Author's Note:**

> Rip Basil.  
> This is very short and very introspective so it was kinda experimental for me tbh
> 
> -Rémy


End file.
